Many of you are in the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grade. It seems you will be young for a long time. But, time is a funny thing. What might seem long, is not as long as you might think.

Our concept of time is based off our knowledge of other years. What do I mean by that? We can only judge time by looking back. We can’t judge time by looking forward. The past to the present is our concept of time. We don’t know what the future has in store for us. But, we can better prepare for the future right now.

The whole universe is a classroom, not just the four corners of the class. We learn from many sources, if we are wise enough to want to do that. We can learn through people, places, situations, nature, many places.

If we get caught up in just book learning, we put ourselves in a bad fix. Book learning does not always fit in with reality. Reality is always changing, every minute, every second.

Change…

Things are constantly changing in the universe, and in our lives. And the better we are able to get a grip on change, be flexible, and have all kinds of knowledge stored in our heads, the better.

Many of you only have 1-4 years, and you will be out on your own. Then what? What are you going to do with your life? Will you be able to grapple with the problems you will face without your parents? Life is no joke. Life is real.

School is not the real world. The real world is the real world. School is almost an illusion, a mirage, a facsimile of real life. Do not be fooled by this school life. If you do, you do disservice to yourself.

The school years are only to give you tools for the real world. Don’t get it twisted. The real world is tough. Mama and Daddy is not always going to be there holding your hand, spoon feeding you, looking out for you, having your back. You are going to have to walk the real world road alone. Will you be prepared?

Every opportunity you have while in school to learn as much as you can, jump on it. Ask good questions, care about your future, and do not get caught up in being popular, and making yourself go against what you know is not right for you.

Be a leader, not a follower. Being a follower does not require a lot of brainpower. All it requires is just following orders, letting other people use you, while you make all the sacrifices, do all the hard work—and some leader or mind manipulator benefits from your hard work. If you are going to do all that hard work to get in the so-called popular crowd, you might as well do it for yourself, to be better prepared for the future. Never let anyone make a fool out of you, and do not make a fool out of yourself.

Look deep within yourselves. Ask yourselves what do you really love. Find answers. Let what you love doing be the thing you strive to master. Once you know what you really love, what drives you, learn everything you can about it. That is the thing you should want as your life job. If you love it, how can it really be a job?. It is something you can do with passion. Nobody can work you hard when you really love something. Many grown people go to work doing jobs they hate. Do you want to be like that?

Your parents are not always going to be taking care of you. 4 years, 3 years or 2 years is not long to graduation. It is just a flicker of time. The days might seem long, you are having a lot of fun in school, the seasons come and go, life is fine and happy. But, time shall pass, and you are going to be walking across that graduation stage—at least I hope you are.

Life is transitory. Life is constant movement. The friends you have now, will not be in your life like they are now. You are going to make other friends after high school. In the quest to make a living, you are going to have to do other things in your life. Some of you will be going to the Military. Some of you will move to other cities for jobs. There will be many things you do after high school. You are going to have to walk the grown road without many of the friends you have right now.

Time…

Time is just an illusion, and it is real at the same time. Will you be the master of your time? That is the question. Only you know that.

Your parents are not going to take care you all their lives. They got their own lives to live. 17/18/19 years old (Graduation Day). That is the year of freedom that sticks out in many parent’s minds. They can not wait until that year comes, so some of their financial obligation will be lessened. You all might not be aware of it. They are not going to outright tell you that….many will. They feed you, clothe you, shelter you. It takes money. It takes hard work. It takes sacrifices to do those things for you. How many of you really care or appreciate the hard work your parents do for you? Many will say, “that is a parent’s obligation.” You are right. It is their obligation. But, who ever said they have to do it the rest of their lives because you did not prepare for your future right now?

Graduation day is Graduation in many ways for you and your parents.

“Commencement”

How many people know what the word Commencement means? Many people think those words means the end of a journey, end of hard work, relax time, kick off your shoes, get you a cool drink of lemonade, chill out time. Commence only means “Start.” Not the end of the road of hard work. Commencement/Graduation means, here is another point of going into a new place, time, situations in life.

Life ain’t no joke. Even though there are comedians and funny situations in life. There are good times in life. But, don’t get it twisted—it ain’t all good. Start building your foundation right now.

There Are Some On Point Writers, Spoken Word Artists, Screenwriters, Playwrights, Poets, Essayists, Short Story Writers, Novelists Out Here.

Great Stories are not only told through Music.

Give Our Committed Artists A Chance to Be heard. If people only knew the Great Stories they could be Reading, Hearing & Seeing from Our Artists with Books, Poems, Plays, Monologues, Short Stories, Films, Spoken Word Poems, Little Books…so much more.

If Our People Only knew the many hours of hardwork our Artists put into getting this Art Out. It is not their Art Alone. The Art comes through them. The kind of Art I am talking about, is not fabricated Art. I am talking about Artists that let themselves be Vessels, being only Conduits of the Infinite.

Teach your children little short poems way before they start to read. It is best to have them memorize poems that rhyme. It sticks in their minds better. We must build up the children’s memories.

Later on…have them recite the poems back to you. Have them memorize a poem a week. Or a poem every two weeks. We can have them do this right after they learn a few words. It does not even matter if they only have a few words in their vocabulary. So what if they are still just baby talking.

If they learn a poem a week, that’s 52 poems a year. If they learn a poem every 2 weeks, that’s 26 poems a year. If they learn a poem a month, that’s 12 poems a year. Use your own discretion.

We must not underestimate what our children have the capacity to learn. Our children can handle pretty much anything we work with them with.

Ebony is Still a Print Magazine. But, now they have a Digital Edition. There is no telling how long the Print Version of Ebony will be around.

Some people have never Read an Ebook, Digital Magazine or Newspaper. But, they use Social Media Everyday. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. In One Breath, some people will say they are not into Ebooks, Digital Magazines & Newspapers, but Use Digital Mediums Everyday.

They will say they Love the Feel of Printed or Real Books Books in their Hands. I understand that fully. Nothing like feeling a book in your hands.

Phones, Tablets & Computers are Digital.

Ebooks, Digital Magazines & Newspapers have 2 Major Benefits. They are Cheaper than their Print Counterparts and you can carry a Whole Library of Ebooks, Magazines & Newspapers on your Digital Devices.

Digital Is Around Anyway. Proof–You are Reading this Post via Your Phone, Tablet or Computer.

We must inspire our children to Love Reading. But, that is not going to happen with Boring Reading Material. Find something they have an interest in–half of the work is done. Children must also see adults around them reading. How can we expect children to fall in love with reading–if the house filled with a bunch of off-the-wall talk of grown people & no grown up reading going on?

Reading is about more than just surface reading. Reading is about extracting the meanings out of the words. Going below the surface and pulling out what the writer is trying to get across. Writers use many tools to paint pictures through words. Literal & Figurative Language, Context Clues, etc.

Ask the children questions about the material they read. Get them in the habit of expressing themselves orally and on paper.-